13 October 2004

Thursday & Friday

Thursday: This day is fairly easy. In the morning I go to court and get a client readmitted into VASAP. Then I have to go to the circuit court and ask for a continuance so that I can subpoena someone. The judge isn't happy because I should have subpoenaed the witness earlier (and she's right; there's a story behind this but that silly privilege thing gets in the way of telling it). Still, she grants the continuance.

Friday: This day goes by fairly easily. My first client is accused of having stolen 3 credit cards (each a felony) and a wallet (misdemeanor) from his mother. The detective is there with two of the cards which were found on my client when he was arrested in Florida. The prosecutor agrees to drop the misdemeanor and one felony if Client agrees to plead guilty in circuit court.1 Client agrees and when he's brought out from lockup agrees to waive his preliminary hearing on those two charges after which the prosecution moves nolle prosequi on the other two.

The next case goes even smoother. It's a couple show causes for failure to pay court costs and failure to come to court. Client has paid off the costs so that gets dismissed out of hand. However, there is a little bit of back and forth about whether to dismiss the second charge. We all pretty much agree to drop the charge but the prosecutor wants my client to agree to pay the costs of court because of "the exorbitant fees paid for the most excellent services of Mr. Lammers." ($112) Client's going to have to pay the charges if she's convicted so we agree to that and that charge is dismissed as well.

But wait, there's more . . . I get appointed to represent a kid on a misdemeanor vandalism charge. Okay, no big deal. Then I walk the kid out to one of the conference room and look at his paperwork and find out he is accused of vandalism at a local convent. Great, the Defense attorney nightmare come to life: nuns testifying against my client. That'll be a fun day.

1Yeah, I know these agreements aren't legally binding but the consequence of backing out would be to have the other charges come back so almost all clients stick to them.

Video Channels

Disclaimer

In case anyone out there needs this warning: This ain't legal advice. Everything in the blog is off the cuff and no one goes back and reads all the cases and statutes before blogging. The law may have changed; cases misread and misunderstood two years ago can still lead to a clinging misperception. Courts in your county, city, or State probably don't operate as described herein. Feel free to be inspired, but YOU MUST ALWAYS DO YOUR OWN RESEARCH OR HIRE A COMPETENT ATTORNEY TO DO SO because I haven't.